Springtime is here
I mean, we still get the occasional blizzard and snowstorm
but temperatures are warming up very quickly
that means that water is not frozen anymore
that means that being outside for long periods of time is not painful anymore
it also means that days are longer and brighter
it is time to dust off those ND filters
I've talked about long exposures in this channel before
and I showed you some of the ND filters that I have
but that collection has grown a little bit in the last few years
so in this video, I'm going to show you the ND filters that I have
why I have them
how to choose a good one
cheaper alternatives to ND filters, and more
you've heard it before: ND filters are like sunglasses for your camera
and that's exactly what they are
you may have noticed that the pupil in your eye gets really tiny when it's bright
but it opens up at night to absorb as much light as possible, so you can see better
lenses work pretty much the same way
we can close or open the aperture to let more or less light in
and there is really nothing else besides aperture to control how much light reaches the sensor
we can change the sensitivity of the sensor
we can change the shutter speed or how long we are going to be capturing the image
but we cannot change the intensity of the light, aperture is the only way we have
but because aperture has other consequences on our images, like it changes the depth of field
we are not free to use any aperture value
we need another tool for this and this is where ND filters come in to the rescue
ND filter stands for "neutral density
filter" because, in theory, they block all the spectrum of light the same way
at least the good ND filters do
this is a 6-stop ND filter that lives pretty much all the time on this lens
this is my Samyang 35mm f/1.4
that 1.4 wide aperture is the only reason why I bought this lens
and the only reason why I carry it with me
because as you can see, it's big,
it's heavy and it's more expensive than the lenses that are not as fast as this one
but on bright days, and now in the spring we're getting more and more of those
it gets really hard to shoot wide open at 1.4 in the middle of the day
because there is just too much light
so that's why I have this filter
it's a 6-stop ND filter
when I say 6-stop ND filter, that means that it lowers the intensity of light by 6 stops
and that's a lot
that's the difference between shooting at f/1.4 and f/11
without this filter, I'd have to shoot at f/11 to not over expose the image
but with this filter, I'm able to shoot at f/1.4 and i still get the right exposure
as I said, a good ND filter blocks all the spectrum of light, by 6 stops in this case
cheaper ND filters might block blues a little bit more, might block greens, reds, whatever
so the effect is that they create color cast in your images
in my case that is not a big deal because I shoot in black and white
but if you shoot color, that's something that you should be aware of
this specific ND filter is from the brand Gobe
I don't know how to pronounce it
I'm not sponsored by them or affiliated with them in any way
but I just happen to like their ND filters
I like these ones and I think they are pretty good for the price
as I said, a little bit of color cast is not a huge deal for me
and that's why when I got started with long exposures,
I started out with welding glass instead of real ND filters
welding glass is the glass that, well, welders use when they are welding to protect their eyes
it can be used in front of the lens as well
they do have a very, very strong color cast but the advantage is that they are very, very cheap
you can find them at almost any hardware store for $5-$7
the problem with welding glass is how to attach it to the front of your lens
and how to make it stable enough that it stays in place for the duration of your long exposure
I used to use a rubber bands with my Bronica
I also glued a step up ring onto the glass
both of those solutions work perfectly fine, and it's a very, very viable cheap solution
if you shoot in black and white, because of the color cast
after a few months of using welding glass,
I made the decision of investing some money on good ND filters
because I loved the long exposures, and I still do
they are a big part of my photography
I also wanted to preserve the color as much as I could even though i shoot in black and white
because I like to play with those colors in post, as i said many times
and also because the DIY solutions to hold the glass in front of the lens were not...
were far from perfect, let's say it that way
so one by one, I started to buy better ND filters
I decided to go with Lee filters
these filters are square, they are 100mm
I think that's what they are, 100mm long
they fit every lens that I've ever owned
I don't have a lens, and that includes the Bronica, where I cannot use this ND filter
so the way this filter attaches to the lens
is by using first, an adapter ring that screws in the lens
and then this holder that you can see here
so you put the ND filter here, in the holder
and this attaches to the lens
the advantage of using an ND filter system with a holder versus a screw-in ND filter like this one
is that I can remove it from the front of the my lens really quick and put it back,
so I can check my composition
these are very strong ND filters, this one right here is a 15-stop ND filter
as you can imagine, when you have an ND filter like this in front of your lens
well, you can't really see anything, it's very, very dark
so having a holder like this... this mechanism makes it very, very easy
if you need to do things like recompose or check your focus or something
because you can just detach the ND filter very quick
and put it back on in just a matter of seconds
while with the other one, you will have to unscrew it, screw it again
and when you are doing that, you might move the lens,
you might move the camera, the tripod or something
so this is much more convenient when you are taking long exposures than the screw-in filters
so as I said, I have a whole system of Lee filters
that is called the super stopper, it's 15 stops
I have the big stopper, this is 10 stops
and I have the little stopper, this is 6 stops
you can combine them too, the holder has room for 2 of them
so I could get, for example, 25 stops if I wanted to go really, really crazy
but I rarely do that, I use just one at a time
they come with these boxes which are pretty handy and convenient for storage in your camera bag
as you can see, this one is a little bit smashed
but it took the beating instead of the filter, so that's great
they are a little bit expensive, I think they are $125 each, plus the holder, plus the adapter
but they will most likely outlive your camera
I've been using these filters for 4 years now
I used them with the Bronica, with my a6500, and with my a7r ii now
okay, what else? what else? what else?
oh, well, any of these filters are just too big to use with my point and shoot cameras
so I have another set for these cameras
it's also from Gobe but this one is really tiny and really cute, as you can see
this is very cool, I don't know if other brands do this
but basically, they are 3 ND filters and they all screw into each other
and then it comes with two... caps, I guess, for each side, on top and the bottom,
that protect the ND filters here
so they are very easy to store
I love this because I can just throw it in my backpack
and I always have a whole ND filter system here with me, for my point and shoot cameras
so I have a 3-stop ND filter that lives permanently on my RX100VII, as you can see there
that's for video, I use this camera a lot for video
and the other two that I have here, these are more for long exposures
because they are too strong, too dark for these tiny cameras otherwise
it's a 6-stop and a 10-stop
and like the other ND filters, you could stack them up
actually use them like they are right now
the 6-stop is screwed into the 10-stop
so you could get 16 stops right here, in this tiny, tiny package
another thing that I wanted to mention
this one is a little bit dirty
but for years, I used a variable ND filter for video
that means that the amount of light that it blocks is not fixed
you can adjust it
this one, I think, goes from 1-2 stops to 4-5, in theory
because in practice, when you go beyond 3 stops, it looks horrible
and it creates a lot of artifacts
so yeah, it's more like between 1 and 3 stops
which is cool because for video it could be very useful depending on the light
the light changes all the time outdoors as you know
so this one, you could adjust and adapt to that light very, very easily
I used this one for years, until I finally broke it on my last road trip
I think it was in Arches where that I dropped my camera
and that's why I decided to go this time with a fixed ND filter instead of a variable ND filter
I also feel like these are... even though this one lasted for 3 or 4 years
I feel like they are a little bit weaker, a little bit more fragile
because they have more... well they have moving parts
they have two pieces of glass instead of one
quality is a little bit worse than the fixed ND filters
so that's why I decided to go with a fixed one this time
even though these are very useful for video
and this is all I had to say about ND filters, I think
I might have forgotten something, so if you have any questions please leave a comment down below
I hope the video was useful
Thank you so much for watching again
and see you in the next one!